‘Hello feet, meet stream’ flickrcc.net
We celebrate Earth Day in April of each year. It’s a time to raise our consciousness to hers and be mindful of our relationship. Hopefully, for even five minutes, we pause to personally thank her and perhaps reflect on whether we have been friends or foes. Do we treat her kindly or disregard her needs as she meets ours?
So it felt right to let Earth speak. She reminds us that we are, without a doubt, more than passing acquaintances; we are born from the same intelligent Creator, fashioned alike. We have depended on one another to survive and now we must honour our oneness to thrive.
“Give me love, give me peace on earth, give me light, give me life…”
George Harrison
“Your memories press into my bones, humanity’s changes laying down tiers of the defining past. There you will find ancient truths of my strength and wisdom. I lovingly and firmly offer what you need for support as we are built from the same elements, but my evolution must continue. I can’t stay the same even for you. I wouldn’t rob you of the gift to know the magnificence of our capacities. So those brittle beliefs you hold that have grown to separate my nature from yours, and that have ignited wars over ownership of my east and west are ready to be freed from the depths of our rigid structures. We will shake them loose from our skeletons and let the burdens tumble. These fossils no longer sustain my body or yours. Conflict and divide tears up my landscapes and bruises my splendor. Your inner beauty suffers from the same blows.
My waters have carried nourishment into the web of spaces in our respective lands. My rivers merge into my oceans, my tides fall in tandem with your moods. When you stand in the quiet lapping of my waves, you understand the calming of my rhythm. And you know it’s joy that quenches your thirst for life and keeps your blood flowing through your arteries. But our waters stagnate in betrayed trust as filth continues to wash up on our shores. You fill me with your toxic wastes, like you hold onto your anger and hurt. You heed little the irritants that erode our emotional pathways, spilling contaminants carelessly into our homes. Breathe with me and keep releasing a cleansing rain, until once again the waters run clear and shimmer with a kiss of the sun’s fire, until the liquid running through our vessels is crystalline light.
I whisper to you in my winds, a faint song upon which Spirit rides. Each moment I am a soundless symphony carried into your cells, and your heart. I leave you messages to where we shall dance next, and how we will form our expansion. But I am lost in the din of your doing, and you can’t notice me from all the noise. You are not even aware how you tirelessly pollute your inner and outer hearing, so accustomed have you become to living in dissonant vibrations. The distractions are too many and you deny the very faith that you desire, the answers you seek. It is our synchronized breath that will yield hope from your despair. Allow me to cradle you in my stillness. It is my soul’s song that will bring you into remembrance of your original Divine human blueprint. Be with me and you will begin to hear the music of my spheres.
I can’t grow without you for our unfolding is entwined in the minutiae of our atoms and the boundlessness of our potential. From you I gather my resolve to hold the space for your existence. I give you love and need your love. Share with me in this vast canvas of creation; when we do, in you and me, all will be right, and up will rise the Divine Energy of Light.”
“Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it.
Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.
All things are bound together. All things connect.”
~Chief Seattle, 1855
Peace Practice:
A Five Element Meditation is a practice of reflecting on the 5 elements – earth, water, fire, air and aether/consciousness – to help us recognize our interconnected relationship with the vaster Universe.
We address one element at a time. For example, consider how the earth elements exist in the world. The earth element is found in what is solid and resistant, such as rocks, pebbles, mountains and wood. Grass, trees, metals and crystals are also of the earth. Then consider what in your body has the same qualities of ‘solid’ and ‘resistant’ – bones, teeth, fingernails, tissue. Be aware of your flesh, of all that can be touched and felt. Feel the weight and solidity of your skeleton and muscle, the pull of gravity taking you down to Earth. Merge with the grass, the trees, the soil, the flowers, and the precious stones. Acknowledge that what is within you is also outside of you, created from the same Source. The composing elements are the same. You are nourished with food from the earth but you also shed skin cells and eliminate waste back into the earth. Ultimately, in death, you completely let go of your body. Your true self therefore is not your body but the earth element moving through you.
Take a walking meditation on Earth Day or any day: every day is Earth day so let your intuition guide you to the highest possible experience. Walk softly through a park or field near water. Put peace into each of your steps and notice the 5 elements: the ground beneath your feet, the waters flowing by, the air on your bare skin, and the fire of the sun. Bring your full presence to the experience to draw in aether/consciousness as the 5th element. Breathe from your belly. As you acknowledge each element for the simple pleasures it brings you, give thanks.
“Hail Mother, who are the earth,
Hallowed be thy soil, rocks, flora
that nourish and support all life.
Blessed be thy wind that gives us breath
and thy waters that quench, bathe and refresh
all living things.
Holy Earth – as one – we praise your majesty,
grace and wonder.”
~Bill Faherty